The headlines lead you to believe that Arsenal have made first contact. This presumably is not the same first contact that was made by Arsène when his call rang through to Karim Benzema’s voicemail a while ago. And if they are making first contact, does it mean that Madrid ringtones are set to Re, Mi, Do, Do, So. And when they physically meet, will Dick and Florentino exchange Curwen hand signs in the footballing equivalent of a Masonic handshake?

A week of reflection in the build-up to The Emirates Cup following the successful tour matches in Singapore. Petr Cech likened the Arsenal dressing room to the one he left behind at Stamford Bridge,

There are a lot of things in common. What I’ve found is a group of players who work very hard and are focussed on what they are doing on the pitch to get ready. I’ve found the team spirit quite extraordinary. Everybody pulls in the same direction, which is why I believe we will have a successful season.

He was hardly likely to state there were massive deficiencies, was he? Cech spoke positively about the mix of youth and experience at the club, and the prospects for the new season being enhanced as a result. This summer has been quiet in terms of the transfer activity in direct contrast with the Mancunian clubs which is not a bad thing. United’s biggest problem in the early weeks of the season will be integrating the number of players into the XI.

With just Cech so far and maybe one other, Arsène’s task is simpler in that respect and that settled atmosphere has to be an advantage. Whether that materialises depends, as Cech put it, on what happens on the pitch. A good pre-season, especially for players like Walcott who have continually played catch-up with their fitness through the season, is vital.

Whilst the depth exists, there is room for improvement. As much as it relies on signings, I suspect nothing is likely to happen before departures are confirmed. Mathieu Flamini to Galatasaray gains ground with Arsenal set to become the first club to sell the player, with a fee of £2.5m quoted. There are others, notably Joel Campbell, who will follow, creating space in the wage bill for new arrivals.

Whether that is the ‘right’ way to do it is irrelevant. I’m not sure there is a right way, before you ask, but this is the model Arsenal have chosen to follow. Ivan Gazidis spoke of the past decade in Singapore, noting that there was no change to the self-sustaining model in the foreseeable future which allows us to adopt a moralistic stance against oil money and sugar daddies although if the recently mooted Nigerian takeover happens, we will be at the whim of the oil money of our sugar daddy quite literally.

Gazidis went on,

We all wanted to be doing better. We wanted to be delivering more to our fans. The football was always good and we maintained – even through those difficult periods – a high level of consistency year to year.

We’re the only club that stayed in the top four and in Europe throughout all of that time. So it’s not as if we fell off the face of the map but of course we always wanted to achieve more.

A mea culpa of sorts. It’s hard to argue with the consistency in finishing in the top four but whilst it’s easy to say the club were more ambitious during the time, there was little evidence of it. The only advantage of finishing consistently in the top four was financial; the footballing merit offered little considering the poor Champions League record of the last five or six years. Not in losing to the likes of Barcelona or Bayern but in the group stages, stumbling into second place to create those ties.

Little effort was put into the domestic cups during that time with the record of one FA Cup semi-final and two losing Carling Cup finals reflecting the second string sides fielded by Arsène. Having seen the euphoria around the consecutive FA Cup wins, I am sure that Arsenal – the manager and the board – would find it hard to argue against the notion that stronger sides winning the cup would have made for a happier place, by and large. It’s a spurious argument to say that these would be at the cost of a top four place; the two were, and are, not mutually exclusive.

The past though is the past and there it shall stay. As long as the club has learned the lessons of that time and puts them to good effect in the future, there is no reason to rake over it. Arsenal are in a good position; I have made no secret of my view that we could do with another specialist defensive midfielder and central striker.

Even without that pair, Arsenal are capable of a title challenge although more beholden to luck than without the investment but it’s not unusual to be looking at the prospect of going into the new season with a very good squad that is a player or two short of being excellent. It’s the Arsenal Way.

Petr Cech declared himself happy with the match against Everton, happy that his concentration levels were strong during his first game for his new club. A couple of smart saves underlined the value that his experience although he get a sharp welcome to Arsenal with Barkley’s goal; possession conceded cheaply and succumbing to counterattacks. Having seen them from the other end of the pitch, it was a relatively new experience to be on the receiving end.

Welcome to Arsenal, Petr.

And this morning, it is contract talks which dominate the Arsenal coverage. Theo, we know, hasn’t signed da ting and in a rare moment, has spoken about it. Talks are ongoing and he is not fazed by the protracted nature of negotiations, prepared to let things go into the new season if necessary,

[Not having signed a new deal is] not in my thought process at all. You don’t want to dwell on it, you want to play well and if it happens it happens. I won’t let that delay the way I’m going to be playing this season. I can’t let that affect me, I want to do well for this club.

Which is just as well really. It’s only been eighteen months since the last laborious contract agreement was reached and to be honest, the two feel to me as if they have merged into one. We can’t say we weren’t warned; Arsène noted that the player isn’t the problem on the pitch, simply that contract talks with Team Walcott are. The two parties have spoken, he reflected, and it was up to them to sort things out; he just wanted to play football, he said, putting down his jumper to use as one of the goalposts.

It is interesting to see the media coverage this morning. The reports say pretty much the same thing but the headlines position the papers different stances. The Guardian takes the view that it is about money; “Theo Walcott keen to sign Arsenal deal but wants more than £100,000 a week” whilst it’s loyalty for Mirror Football, who are keen to point out it is about football, noting, “Arsenal’s Theo Walcott happy to play ANY forward position as he nears Gunners testimonial“.

In days gone by, the testimonial meant something but frankly salaries have ensured that the matches are more for recognition of outstanding service as was the case with Dennis Bergkamp. Should Theo be rewarded with one for the traditional ten years? It would, I think, chafe some to see such a match take place.

It genuinely doesn’t feel like he’s been at the club for a decade but his absences through injury alter my perspective. Because you don’t talk about a player day in, day out during that time, to be blunt, you push them to the back of your mind and as a result, they tend to feel not quite “like a new player” when they return but certainly someone who has been at the club a relatively short time.

Walcott has accepted that he isn’t going to be the central striker he always craved it seems, adapting his views to the current tactic,

It is well documented where I want to play but up front there is a lot of competition for places. I think the modern-day footballer, the three up front tend to change around a lot.

His target of 15 – 20 goals a season hasn’t changed but he barely hid his frustration at the season ending just as he hit goalscoring form. That has to carry on into the new season if he wants to keep his place in the starting XI. There is competition for places and it’s going to be hard for him to slot back into the side seamlessly. Alexis’ absence for the opening games will help but when he comes back and is presumably restored to the starting line-up, it seems Theo is in a bun fight for a place with Aaron Ramsey on the right and Olivier Giroud the most obvious barriers.

Is he good enough to lead the line for a season? It’s a qualified risk for Wenger. We know he can deliver against the smaller clubs but can he do so from the front, week in, week out? In that sense he is untested but not inexperienced as such. As he notes, there is a sense of rigidity in thinking that the centre forward is a central striker and won’t drift right or left. The problem is that in playing Walcott there, pressure shifts to the rest of the team to contribute goals.

Last year hinted that there were more goals in the XI than before, especially with someone like Alexis and maybe that is in Walcott’s favour. We aren’t so reliant on one player as we have been in the past.

It’s a problem for Arsène as well. Players of his calibre know that if they are fit, they are on the bench and whilst they speak publicly about being content with that – trotting out the line that “a winning side is hard to get into” – the reality may be different as Steven Gerrard let slip; he left Liverpool because it was hard to motivate himself when he knew he was no better than “50-50″ for a place in the starting line-up. Age no doubt influenced that but looking at experienced internationals, how soon will dissatisfaction set in if they are sitting on the sidelines each week, no matter how comfy the chairs are?

We like to think of it as the downside of modern management, the problem caused by the squad system. It’s exacerbated a problem that already existed is a more accurate reflection. Now clubs need ‘internationals’ for every position and they get to sit on the bench. In days gone by, they accepted there was just the one substitute spot and went to clubs lower down the league. It didn’t affect their international careers in doing so unlike today where you feel that those who were at Southampton for example, whilst chosen for form and ability, were accepted publicly because they were moving on to somewhere bigger. That’s an arse about-face way of viewing players but it is the Premier League way.

You feel this is a big season for Walcott. As well-spoken as he is, it feels like his career has under-delivered. Taken to Germany for experience in 2006, he was wrongly dropped in favour of Aaron Lennon four years later. Injured for Brazil, he seems destined to join Ryan Giggs in not appearing for his country at a World Cup finals. For his club, injury has interrupted. We know what he can do in a good season; it would be nice to have one of those in 2015/16.

Having told the world that defeat would lead to broken cannons being strewn across the back pages, Arsène decided that ‘if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em’ was the best policy and hyped up yesterday’s win over Everton. To be fair, he had a point; it was a very good performance for the most part, individually and collectively. Some players are more attuned to the coming season than others and it is the latter to whom most attention will be paid in the next few weeks.

Arsène gave Petr Cech his début and in a couple of saves, the goalkeepers on the tour – and David Ospina if he manages to see any of the match – will have seen the bar raised in standards. Everton probably wish the bar had been raised by an inch or so after Cech’s fingertips pushed Naismith’s header onto the woodwork in a rare first half opportunity for the Merseysiders.

It’s too much to expect anyone to have made a definitive case for their inclusion in the starting line-up but Theo Walcott is taking large strides in that direction. The manager singled him out for praise after the match when he seemed more attuned to the match than Olivier Giroud. His reward was a well-taken goal, quicker in mind and body than the defender.

Wenger declared himself happy with the week’s work,

It is quite amazing how quickly the players are back to fitness and a good body shape. I was a bit surprised how sharp we looked because yesterday we had quite a strong training session and I found the players a bit tired.

But football has changed and they prepare well through the summer. They come back from their holidays and they don’t start from zero. They have done their homework and they already look close to full fitness.

He then proceeded to tempt fate by claiming that it was “unusual” for Arsenal to have everyone fit for the start of the season. It’s a long way off, Arsène, and this is Arsenal; we manage to find a way to screw things up even in the most straightforward of circumstances.

Having invested time and money in player conditioning, the hope has to be that the frequency of injuries, certainly the non-contact type, reduces. If that is the case, like Mourinho, Wenger may not be too perturbed by the spending taking place in Manchester. United will test Van Gaal’s organisational skills to the fore with half a new XI expected to arrive before the Premier League begins. It’s a lot of players to integrate in one summer, especially as the last couple will be arriving relatively late in the day.

By contrast, Arsenal will be relatively settled and that is advantageous if it lasts. It doesn’t alter my view that there are two signings still to be made but with no serious injuries so far, Arsène’s optimism for next season is understandable.

Ed Woodward, United’s powerbroker, had some interesting things to say on their attitude to the summer,

It’s relentless because you’re immediately focused on the next [target]. To that extent, I am completely aligned with the fans. When we tell them we’ve signed a player, there is a moment of happiness but then it’s about who’s next. There is a lot of work involved in terms of negotiations and that is time-consuming, so I prefer to look back at it at the end of the window, see the players on the pitch and see how they’ve been blended into the squad.

It’s not dissimilar to the words Ivan utters in public. Being the public face of negotiations, their actions, words and whereabouts dictate the media angle on transfers. Expect more interest in Arsenal’s affairs over the coming weeks, particularly with The Emirates Cup next weekend, followed by the Community Shield. The latter may influence thoughts more than the former given the fortunes of the two clubs in recent years.

Even so, Arsenal should not be influenced by other clubs actions. The transfer window isn’t a tit-for-tat affair; just because United and City have spent heavily doesn’t mean Arsenal should as well. That said, it seems unlikely that they won’t; many of us thought that the defensive midfield role and attack needed more urgent attention that goalkeepers.

Yesterday offered a question or two in that direction. Can Jack Wilshere provide the cover needed in the defensive role? It’s wasting his attacking instincts even though Everton were generous in offering him opportunities to push forward. Like Mikel Arteta, he is a different player to Francis Coquelin and as such a friendly isn’t the best arena in which to judge him that role. Nor is his England role the same which provided a strong platform for Arsenal last season.

Equally, Olivier Giroud was off the pace yesterday. There are some players who take a game or two to get back into their stride and he was the same last year. The French international was understandably brusque when asked this week about the prospect of a new striker arriving,

I’m not honouring this question. I’m trying to focus on my pre-season preparations. We are doing well together with a really good [cohesion] and the most important for me is that the team is always improving. If there is a new striker, it will be nice for all the team, because competition is good for everyone.

That the player most heavily linked is also competing for an international team place offers an interesting problem for the manager to wrestle with. Can he afford Benzema and Giroud in the same squad, especially since the ‘loser’ of that club battle most likely loses at international level as well. Interesting days ahead.

Be still my beating heart. The world prepared for the 119th British Open at St Andrews with Nick Faldo as favourite to win his second Open title. He duly did, having led, I think, from the second day.

The same fanfare wasn’t quite reserved for the draw for the Makita International Tournament, despite it being rigged so that Saturday’s final would include one English team. Arsenal faced Aston Villa in the second of two Friday night matches whilst Sampdoria faced Real Sociedad in the other. The two winners would meet, in an attempt to generate some sort of excitement over the matches and leave an element of surprise about whom your opponents would be.

In reality, Arsenal were expected to progress, as were Sampdoria in what would become a familiar contest for a short while. The Genovesi club were in their Golden Age. Having been beaten by Barcelona in the 1988/89 UEFA Cup final, they had won the Copa Italia before going on to win the 1989/90 European Cup Winners Cup. This coming season would see them win their only scudetto before completing reaching their third European final in four years when they lost the 1992 Champions Cup final, again to Barcelona.

The Spanish league wasn’t quite the two-horse race it is now but nonetheless, wasn’t far from it. Sociedad had from memory, signed John Aldridge to signal an end to their Basque-only recruitment policy although John Toshack had been their manager a few years earlier. They added Dalian Atkinson and Kevin Richardson in the summer of 1990 in a bid to improve their standing, only to slump to mid-table. Richardson was there no more than a season and I think Atkinson the same although I have it in mind he didn’t settle well in Spain.

Saturday, and this morning’s playlist is the 101st. Some will point to the significance of 101 and so the previous 100 playlists are wrapped up in one bitesize bundle; an introduction to Dad’s Jukebox if you like. The First 100is a compilation of the best bits, one track from each playlist so far and is on Dad’s Jukebox in the right sidebar. The full playlists can be found in the archives here. An accompaniment to the day ahead.

We wouldn’t have expected anything less from Arsène. The last time he commented on a deal that was under way, Noah had only just drawn up the blueprints for a family yacht he had a mind to build. Yesterday, he kept that record going by dousing a Karim Benzema fire. Or did he.

“I don’t know where that story comes from, but that is not happening at the moment” was hardly a robust denial and the media thought so too, taking it as a cue to run with the story from a different angle and leave everyone jolly excited. It might turn out to be the signing unveiled at The Emirates Cup next weekend. Yes, that old malarkey has raised its’ head; the home friendly and fairy tale afternoons completed with a marquee signing unveiled at the tournament. And I thought ticket sales were going well…

Talk of Benzema draws this afternoons’ appearances by Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott into focus. Inevitably, squandered chances will be met with variations on “Benzema would have scored that“. Particularly bad ones will see Benzema drop out of the frame and Yaya Sanogo’s name enter the fray. He seemed as surprised as anyone by the loan move to Ajax but good luck to him; if he can’t find his scoring mojo under the tutelage of Messrs De Boer, Bergkamp and Overmars, it is hard to see when it will come.

Arsène wouldn’t be drawn on his formation this afternoon but if there is to be a double-pronged attack of Giroud and Walcott, a pre-season friendly is certainly the time to test it out. The hint seemed designed to have Everton thinking about the prospect but the reality is that it will be a major surprise if Theo is anything other than a wide attacker. There’s no guarantee both will start either, simply that the manager observed those who didn’t play against Singapore would do so today.

With Alexis yet to return to the club, it’s a rare opportunity for some to put doubt in the managers’ mind about his starting XI. Not in omitting the Chilean but for the other spots in attack / midfield. At the moment, Wenger was quick to point out that most of the squad is fit, certainly in bigger numbers than is usually expected. Inevitably, the season will take its’ toll in terms of injuries but the selection headaches will be there in the opening phases. Presumably the number of days lost will improve with Abou Diaby’s departure inflating the last few years records.

Will Arsène keep faith with the XI which turned things around in the second half of last season? Aside from the goalkeeper, the indications are that for the most part, he will. For that reason, I’ll be surprised if he moves to playing with two central strikers; it creates more problems for him in a squad not built for that formation.

Petr Cech’s arrival has made the defence calmer, more “serene” according to Laurent Koscielny. His experience may be tested to keep it that way although despite their miserly goals conceded record, Chelsea were prone to errors from the centre backs. They just made fewer of them.

Wenger and Gazidis both reinforced the message that there is belief within the club and squad that the title is there to be won. Arsène made a valid point that it is more competitive than other countries which is where the investment comes into question. It’s up to the manager and executives that are involved in deals to bring in the players that take the club to the next level; challenging for the title.

City, Chelsea and United have more financial resources and nobody will argue with that but that fact doesn’t preclude the club from investing though. A summer with just a new goalkeeper? It seems unlikely and it’s why I don’t think anyone should be bent out of shape about what is happening elsewhere compared to what Arsenal are doing. It’s beneficial to get new arrivals in early so that they have a pre-season but the calibre of player Arsenal need to be signing, to genuinely improve the XI should be able to adapt quickly.

The season is a month away so there is plenty of time for deals to be made in time for the visit of West Ham on the opening weekend, as well as departures happening. Next out of the door may well be Mathieu Flamini who is being hawked around the footballing bazaar to the interest of Galatasaray although a certain cynicism might be applied to that simply with Turkey the favourite destination of the transfer rumour this summer.